


Five Ficlets for Cyan and Terra

by TeaRoses



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-13
Updated: 2010-03-13
Packaged: 2017-10-07 23:26:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaRoses/pseuds/TeaRoses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Originally written for the stagesoflove LiveJournal.  The theme was "five times of day" -- dawn, noon, afternoon, evening, and night.  They loosely form a story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Question of Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dawn

Dawn was breaking, and Cyan Garamonde was practicing his swordsmanship, fighting again the empty air, trying to remember all the techniques. He had to force himself these days, had to tell himself that there were still people to protect even if everyone he loved was gone. And he practiced alone, not wanting people to see how much older and slower he was.

"Cyan?"

He stopped and turned, careful not to lean on his sword. It wasn't proper, and he couldn't stand to appear weak. Terra was approaching him, and it was bad enough that she now saw him panting and exhausted after only an hour of imaginary swordplay.

"I didn't think anyone else was awake at this hour," he said.

"I haven't been asleep," Terra admitted. "I was just wondering... are you still angry at me because I was once an Imperial soldier?"

Cyan thought a moment, then shook his head. "No. They forced thee; thought of thee as as a slave and a weapon. I am even starting to trust Celes, and I know thou art not on their side now."

"I'm sorry about your family." She was silent a moment. "And I'm sorry that sounds so inadequate. I should have said something when I first found out but I just couldn't."

"I appreciate thy sentiments," he said. "Even though there is nothing anyone can say to take away the pain."

She looked into his eyes intently. "I don't even know who my family is, or if they are alive at all. I lost everything, including myself. Including the ability to love."

"No one truly loses that," replied Cyan.

"Do you really think so?"

"Thou hast fought hard for thy life, and someday, perhaps when this war is over, I believe that thou wilt love."

Terra nodded, and then turned and walked away without speaking. He watched the rising sun filter through the yellow of her hair.

"What I did not tell her is that with love comes pain," he murmured to himself. "But she has lost enough already. I will not take away her last hope."


	2. Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Noon

Terra looked as if she had been crying. No one else seemed to notice anything amiss, but she had that weak look around her eyes that he knew from Elayne.

Cyan had made it his business to keep Elayne from crying, but he had no idea what to do for Terra. There were too many things in the ruined world that could be causing her tears, too many things that he couldn't fix. And she was not really his personal responsibility.

But when they stopped for water he guided her away from the others, into some of the scant brush on the Veldt.

"Something is wrong. I can tell," he stated, feeling incredibly awkward.

"Everything is wrong, and not just for me," Terra replied. "But don't worry about me."

"But thou hast been crying."

Terra pointed upward. "It's the bright sun here. We shouldn't be traveling in the middle of the day like this."

Cyan just looked at her, unbelieving.

"Don't tell anyone," she said in an urgent tone. "The last thing I want is for everyone to think I'm weak."

"Thou art not weak. I am a warrior yet I have cried." It pained him to admit it, but this was not the time to put up a false front to her.

She looked honestly surprised at his admission. "It's the children. I think of them, and how I left them there. I only wanted to stay there and care for them... but I couldn't, not with everything at stake like this." She put a hand to her mouth. "But I really shouldn't speak to you of such things, after what happened to--"

Cyan shook his head. "I have had my time to grieve. Perhaps it was still not enough. But speak to me whenever thou wouldst. And heed me; they are thy children, though not born to you. Just as Owain, who I will never see again, was mine. Thou hast every right to cry for them. But they live, and we are making a better world for them, together. Remember that when thou art brought to tears."

When she looked at him, he saw so much gratitude in her expression that it almost embarrassed him. For a fleeting moment he thought she was going to try to embrace him, and he backed away.

"I will tell the others to pitch a tent against the sun and rest," he said. When he left her, he turned to watch her face, and he was certain she was not crying now.


	3. The Last Afternoon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Afternoon

Cyan stood in the engine room of the Falcon, meditating on its mysteries. Tomorrow morning they would assault Kefka's tower and very likely die. But he had sharpened his weapons and practiced magic under Celes's guidance, and there was nothing left to do.

The door opened and Terra stepped in.

"This is the last afternoon," she said to him.

"No," he replied. "There will be more."

"I need to speak with you."

"I told thee to speak when thou wouldst," he said.

To his surprise she lifted his hand and cradled it between her palms as she spoke.

"If everything were different; if your heart did not belong to the memories of your wife and son..." her voice trails off and in a whisper she says "I might have loved you."

"Why me?" he asks, not quite wanting to withdraw his hand.

"Because you are a warrior. Because you hate machinery. Because you are dignified. Because you make silk flowers. I don't know why. Just that there is something else I love besides the children, now."

"Terra, even if I were not far older than thee--"

She shook her head, removed her hands from his. "Don't worry. I know there is no way for you to return my feelings. I just had to say it, in case this is the last afternoon."

Then she turned and walked out, without waiting for a reply. Cyan was left staring at the empty door saying "If we can be the victors tomorrow, everything really will be different."


	4. After

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Evening

The sun was setting as Cyan watched from the bow of the Falcon, which would stay on the ground tonight. This was a sunset Cyan thought he would never see, with the war over and Kefka dead, and Terra somehow miraculously still here. It would probably take days or weeks for him to stop taking battle stances at the slightest noise. And it would probably take forever for him to tell Terra how he had felt when he thought she might not be there to see this peace.

She came up to him and stood by his side to look at the sky. "It's beautiful, the sunset."

"My life is in its sunset too," he murmured.

"All our lives are just beginning," she said.

He nodded. "That is also true."

"I don't pretend that I can be another Alayne for you. But if you have room in your heart for me..." She trailed off uncertainly, and Cyan realized she was making a great effort to speak to him of love.

"I cannot lie. Sometimes it does not seem right to love anyone but Alayne. And thou art so young."

"After all I have been through to make sure I even have feelings, don't dismiss mine as childish."

He shook his head. "Very well, I shall not. But... I am still a warrior, and I understand love less than I understand machinery."

Terra smiled. "You can learn."

He picked up her hand and held it. "Yes, I think I can."


	5. Celebration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Night

That night there was a party to end all parties. Cyan, of course, stood away from the rest, looking at the stars. But he would admit being in a celebratory mood, just a little. He noticed couples sneaking into the shadows, and he thought of Terra, wondering if that was quite right.

Then she was there, reaching for his hand.

"Do you know what you are going to do, now that it's all over?" she asked.

Cyan really didn't know. He had thought his real life ended when his family died, but it hadn't, and he didn't know what came next.

"I hope you're not going to hide in a cave again," Terra said in a teasing tone, squeezing his hand.

"No, I think not. But whatever I do..." He went silent.

"Whatever you do," prompted Terra.

"Whatever I do, I hope thou wilt be with me."

He had never thought he would kiss a woman again, after Alayne, but when Terra turned his face up to him he bent his head toward her. He was thinking how ridiculous they must look, an old man and a young woman. But he did kiss her, awkwardly and sweetly. And if it looked silly it didn't matter, because only the night sky was watching.


End file.
